Two youths who clutter, but is that the only similarity?

This article describes the clinical profile of two youngsters who clutter. Although both subjects share key characteristics, they differ in other respects. As we gain more systematic information on the nature and symptomatology of cluttering, we may conclude that it is not a homogeneous but a heterogeneous phenomenon.     

A tachistoscopic study of hemispheric processing in stuttering and nonstuttering children

Hemispheric processing, expressed as mean reaction time to various visual stimuli presented to the left and right visual fields, was investigated in eighteen stuttering and nonstuttering children. Tachistoscopic procedures were used to present linguistic stimuli (words and nonwords) as well as nonlinguistic stimuli (familiar and unfamiliar geometric figures) to the visual fields. Subjects responded by pressing a telegraph key when they perceived a real word or a familiar geometric figure. They were to make no response when they perceived nonwords or unfamiliar geometric figures. Faster reaction times were taken as an index of the most efficient or dominant hemisphere for a given task. No significant differences were found in mean reaction times for groups, visual fields, type of task, nor any of their interactions. Likewise, the data on accuracy also did not suggest that a larger proportion of stutters responded more accurately when linguistic stimuli were presented to the right hemisphere. Based on mean reaction times and on accuracy data, the stuttering and nonstuttering children performed with similar efficiencies and processing patterns.     

Inherited predisposition to alcoholism: characteristics of sons of male alcoholics

Sons of male alcoholics (SOMAs) are at markedly heightened genetic risk for the development of alcohol abuse. Study of SOMAs could therefore conceivably increase the efficiency of research aimed at uncovering those heritable factors that predispose to alcoholism. SOMAs manifest observable behavioral, cognitive, and psychophysiological abnormalities while sober and react idiosyncratically to alcohol intoxication. They are most commonly described as conduct disordered and hyperactive, appear heir to a variety of deficits in verbal and abstract cognition, and perform more poorly in the academic environment. SOMAs are characterized by abnormal patterns of cued psychophysiological response, and appear more sensitive to the putatively reinforcing aspects of alcohol intoxication. Various methodological weaknesses permeate the relevant literature. Some straightforward improvements are suggested.     

Sex and cultural differences in lefthandedness

Sex differences are presented for the students of architecture and music, and the distribution of sex in the tested sample, and the population is discussed. The results are related to other studies in Scandinavia, which give comparable results. A genetic/cultural model is used to discuss the differences between results from Scandinavia, USA, and other parts of the world.     

The role of symmetrical and asymmetrical social conflict in cognitive change

We asked whether dyads consisting of nonconservers of liquid would be more likely than solo controls to change to a conservation answer when each child gave symmetrically conflicting answers from different perspectives ("more" versus "less" from different viewpoints). We also asked whether nonconservers are more likely than conservers to abandon their answers in conserver + nonconserver dyads. In order to stimulate the perspectival conflicts in the nonconserver + nonconserver dyads, the partners experienced artificial displays in which the two possible answers were afforded by different views of the apparatus. We found no evidence that social conflict of the kind engineered in the nonconserver + nonconserver dyads stimulates cognitive change. Our evidence that nonconservers tend to adopt the conservation answer of their partners was less strong than that collected in previous studies, but this may have been due to the fact that, contrary to previous studies, the children's social dominance relations were affecting the outcome. We concluded that the ineffectiveness of symmetrical social conflict is consistent with Piaget's conception of nonconservers as children insensitive to the perspective-relative nature of their judgments.     

Matfit: A fortran subroutine for comparing two matrices in a subspace

This research was supported by grant APA 3020 from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada. The author would like to thank Dr. David O'Hare for providing the data used to illustrate the use of the program MATFIT.     

Reducing Avoidance of Social Interaction with a Physically Disabled Person by Mentioning the Disability Following a Request for Aid1

The effectiveness of strategies for reducing avoidance of social interaction with a physically disabled person was experimentally investigated. Female college students privately expressed their preference for social interaction before and after learning the other was a female in a wheelchair or nondisabled. The results provide evidence for the effectiveness of mentioning the disability following a request for aid related to the disability (the Request-mention Strategy). Change in preference for social interaction was more positive when the disabled person employed the Request-mention strategy than when she said nothing. Requesting aid without mentioning the disability was not found to be effective. A request for aid unrelated to the disability was clearly ineffective. The disabled person who said nothing was avoided, in comparison to when the same person was nondisabled. Favorability of impressions of the other, as measured by ratings of her characteristics, was not influenced by the experimental conditions.     

Relative preference and adaptiveness of behavioral blame for observers of rape victims

Observers viewed one of nine dramatized videotaped interviews of a rape victim describing her rape. Information in the interview varied the prudence of the victim's behavior (careful, careless, no information provided) and the respectability of her character (good, bad, no information provided). Behavioral blame was significantly greater than characterological blame when the victim was careless or when no information was provided about behavior, regardless of the victim's character. When the behavior was careful, behavioral blame was equal in magnitude to characterological blame. In no case was characterological blame preferred. The adaptive value of behavioral blame for preserving a belief in a controllable and meaningful world was examined using a hierarchical multiple regression. After removing the effects of the prebeliefs of the subjects and the independent variable manipulations, only behavioral blame was significantly related to the maintenance of adaptive beliefs. Implications of the adaptive value of behavioral blame are discussed along with the importance of distinguishing observers' behavioral and characterological blaming strategies in the victimization literature.